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Graham died hours after returning from a trip to Ukraine. Trump said he spoke with the senator Saturday evening and that "could've been his last call."
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He died from "a brief and sudden illness" on Saturday evening, his office said. Over more than two decades in the Senate, he consistently pushed for the use of U.S. military power overseas.
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In an interview on Sunday, President Trump recounted his last conversation with Senator Lindsey Graham, hours before his death. Mr. Graham sounded "perfect," he said.
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The senator had sometimes struggled to maintain support from his party's most right-wing voters. But leaders paid tribute to his wit and stalwart support of South Carolina.
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The condition that killed Senator Lindsey Graham is deadly, sudden and difficult to treat — "like a knife to the back," one expert said.
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The Republican senator denied that he had suffered a heart attack and said he had left the hospital and moved to a physical rehabilitation center. He did not give a timetable for returning to Capitol Hill.
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Trump announced on Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey and is considering selling the country F-35 fighter jets. Trump made the comment following a lavish state dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he praised as a "great leader." The mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures and journalists remain jailed on politically motivated charges.
"Here in Ankara, and in Turkey more broadly, this NATO summit is not taking place in a climate of freedom. We saw, in the two weeks leading up to this summit happening, authorities in Ankara arrested over 200 people in dawn raids," says Ruth Michaelson, a journalist based in Istanbul. "There has also been a protest ban enforced in Ankara, and that is a protest ban that extends even to leafleting."
Repression from the Turkish state has not been addressed during the summit; instead, "something that we've been hearing throughout the summit is that Turkey has this indispensable place in NATO," says Michaelson.
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